On Tuesday, the two state agencies jointly filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of appeal. The Attorney General’s Office would have argued the case before the appellate court.

The one-paragraph notice, obtained by the Times-Union, gave no reason for the dismissal.

Prosecutor Mark Caliel declined to comment further.

“We have always been comfortable that no appellate court would have disagreed with what Judge Cooper did,” said Hank Coxe, who is among a group of private attorneys representing Fernandez.

University of Miami law professor Tamara Lave said she believes the prosecutors saw something in the judge’s ruling that made them decide it wasn’t worth arguing the matter.

“I suspect that part of what’s going on is they must actually think there’s something just about the court’s decision,” said Lave, who has been following the case.

Because of the notice of dismissal, the defense team will not be allowed to pursue its own cross-appeal of Cooper’s decision to allow a pre-Miranda conversation Fernandez had with two detectives before he was questioned in what would become the murder case.

The next court hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 28. That may be when Cooper sets trial dates in both cases.